Another Dallas Cowboy in the Real-Estate Biz

First, of course, there was Roger Staubach; more recently, it was Emmitt Smith. Now Michael Irvin's in the real-estate business with a company called Tetra Michael Irvin Group, a joint venture between Irvin and The Tetra Companies, a real estate development and management company that works the East Coast. Reports this morning's Miami Herald, the former Cowboys wide receiver took his kids to visit the Fort Lauderdale house in which he grew up, and they couldn't believe how, like, small it was. "My kids really woke me up,'' Irvin tells the paper about the house he stills owns, matter of fact. "God gave me a gift, and I want to try to do something good.''

So Irvin decided to get into the redevelopment biz via a private equity fund, which, the paper says, "will finance and develop mixed-use projects in underserved markets throughout the southeastern United States." They need $45 mil in the next 12 months to fund $180 mil in new development -- including the $80-mil mixed-use development in Fort Lauderdale called, natch, Playmaker Foundation Plaza. Which is so much better than The White House. --Robert Wilonsky